'Keshubhai not to be blamed for poll debacle'

By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR, JAN. 2. True to the apprehensions of the dissidents in the BJP Legislature Party, the Bharat Barot Committee is believed to have absolved the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr. Keshubhai Patel, and his Government from any responsibility for the party's defeat in the recent municipal corporation and district and taluka panchayat elections.

The report of the 10-member committee, headed by the Minister of State for Higher Education, Mr. Bharat Barot, a junior member in the Cabinet, was submitted to the BJP State president, Mr. Rajendrasinh Rana, here on Sunday. But its contents have not been made public.

Sources in the party said the 11-page report had only assigned peripheral reasons, such as the hike in the prices of the petroleum products and erratic power supply to the farm sector, for the debacle, besides groupism in the party in some districts. It had not even discussed the problems faced by people during the drought, particularly the acute shortage of drinking water, though the Chief Minister had considered it a chief cause for the defeat.

Some of the critics of Mr. Patel, including the Industries Minister, Mr. Suresh Mehta, and the Union Textile Minister, Mr. Kashiram Rana, had opposed the setting up of the panel under Mr. Barot and demanded that a central committee find out the truth. They expressed the apprehension that a committee headed by a junior Minister was aimed at bailing out the Chief Minister.

Moreover, Mr. Barot was shuttling between the camps of Mr. Shankarsinh Waghela and Mr. Patel in 1997, when Mr. Waghela raised the banner of revolt. Finally, he decided to stay put with the official group. The dissidents expressed the fear that Mr. Barot could not take a harsh line against the Chief Minister, who resurrected him in the State politics despite opposition from the hardliners.

The report has praised the ``glorious achievements'' of Mr. Patel's Government, but blamed the party workers in districts for their failure to ``communicate'' the Government's welfare programmes to people. The party organisation in the district and taluka levels had failed to ``translate the pro- Patel and pro- BJP sentiments into votes.'' However, it did not cast any aspersion on the party leadership.

The report cited the anti-incumbency factor and the ``disenchantment of the middle class voters'' as other reasons for the party's worst-ever debacle in the State since 1987. It said the party erred in the selection of ``right candidates'' in some places. There was no mention in the report of the charges of large scale corruption allegedly involving some senior Ministers. ``The effort apparently was aimed at finding a scapegoat among some party workers to spare those leaders who were responsible for the mess,'' one of the committee members said.

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